Chapter 148: Extermination
The first guard managed to complete only half the movement.
Grace opened her hand, and the transparent ice advancing from the right rose into a curved wall, sealing off the escape route of the vampires near the artifact. The structure did not appear to protect her. It leaned inward, compressing the available space and forcing all the survivors toward Victor.
He noticed immediately.
Victor spun the Black Ice sword and let Black Lightning travel through his arm in a concentrated flow. The energy passed through his shoulder, moved down through his elbow, and reached his fist at the exact moment he began the slash.
The blade cut through the air.
A shockwave swept across the center of the ruins.
The three vampires pushed by Grace’s barrier tried to raise blood defenses, but the compressed wind struck before they could fully form. The first defense shattered like glass. The second was torn from its creator’s hands. The third held for an instant, only to be hurled backward along with the vampire maintaining it.
The bodies slammed into the black box.
The red symbols spread across its surface flickered.
The white-haired leader widened his eyes.
"Do not let them get close!"
The four guards advanced at the same time.
Two attacked Victor.
The other two ran toward Grace.
They had finally understood that attacking only one side meant leaving the other completely open. Their solution was to separate the two and drown them in direct combat.
It was a good decision.
It had simply come too late.
The first guard to reach Grace wielded a long, narrow sword covered in a layer of blood energy. He attacked in a rapid sequence, alternating strikes aimed at her neck, heart, and abdomen. Grace retreated only as much as necessary, letting each cut pass a few centimeters from her skin.
She did not look particularly fast.
She simply seemed to know exactly where the blade would be.
The guard took another step forward, believing he had pressured her against a broken column.
Grace placed her back against the stone.
He smiled for an instant.
Then the column behind her froze.
Ice traveled through the cracks in the structure, spread down to the ground, and reappeared beneath the guard’s feet. Before he could retreat, two thin stakes pierced his ankles and pinned him in place.
Grace tilted her face aside to avoid another strike.
Then she touched the side of his sword with two fingers.
The metal turned white.
The blood energy over the blade vanished at once, smothered by the cold. The freezing spread up the hilt and reached the man’s hand.
Grace twisted her wrist.
The sword, the hand, and part of the guard’s arm broke into fragments.
He opened his mouth to scream.
A stake emerged from the column behind Grace, passed through her own shadow, and pierced his face through the mouth. The point came out through the back of his skull, stained red.
Grace stepped away while the body remained pinned upright.
The second guard arrived from behind.
She did not turn.
"Victor."
On the other side of the clearing, Victor had just blocked two crossed blades with his Black Ice sword. He heard the call, located the red point behind Grace, and released one hand from his weapon.
A small black spike appeared between his fingers.
He threw it.
The projectile crossed the clearing like an arrow, passing only a few centimeters from Grace’s face before piercing the eye of the guard trying to attack her.
The vampire staggered.
Grace turned and struck his chest with her palm.
Ice spread across his clothes, entered through his ribs, and wrapped around his heart before he could recover his balance.
She closed her fingers.
The man’s chest cracked from within.
He fell dead.
"Thank you," Grace said.
Victor shoved the two enemies surrounding him backward.
"You noticed him?"
"Of course."
"Then why did you call me?"
"To see whether you were paying attention."
Victor let out a short laugh.
"You are irritating."
One of the guards used the distraction to attack from the side. The blade struck Victor’s shoulder, but Black Ice spread over his skin at the moment of impact. The cut still went in, though not as deeply as it should have.
Victor looked at the sword lodged in his shoulder.
Then at the guard.
"That was rude."
The vampire tried to pull the weapon free.
Victor froze the blade inside his own wound.
The metal became trapped.
Before the enemy could release the hilt, Victor stepped forward and drove his forehead into the man’s mask.
The metal cracked.
So did the guard’s nose.
Victor grabbed the front of his clothes and pulled him closer. A discharge of Black Lightning ran through his arm and exploded through the hand gripping the fabric.
BOOM!
The vampire’s chest caved in.
The shockwave passed through his body and sent a spray of blood out through his back. Victor released him, letting the corpse fall at his feet, then tore the frozen blade from his shoulder.
The final guard hesitated.
Only for a fraction of a second.
Victor advanced.
The man raised his sword in defense, but Victor did not attack with his own blade. He accelerated his shoulder with Black Lightning and slammed into the opponent’s body.
The impact launched him backward.
The guard crashed into the wall of ice Grace had created.
The white surface curved, absorbing part of the force before closing around his arms and legs like a jaw.
Victor walked toward the immobilized man.
"This is the part where you beg to live."
The guard tried to move his head.
Victor drove the sword through his throat before a word could come out.
"Too slow."
All four guards were dead.
The white-haired leader now stood alone before the black box.
Around him, the survivors from the outer formation tried to reorganize. Some were wounded. Others had lost weapons or body parts. Even so, more than ten vampires were still capable of fighting.
The young man raised both hands.
The blood of the nearby corpses responded.
Pools spread across the ice began to tremble, rising from the ground in thick strands that gathered around him. The energy took the shape of dozens of red spears, all pointed at Victor and Grace.
"Kill them both!" he shouted.
The spears fired.
Victor struck his sword against the ground.
A wall of Black Ice rose before him, thick and uneven. The projectiles struck the structure in sequence, opening deep cracks, but failing to pass through completely.
Grace raised no defense.
She lowered her hand.
The ice spread across the ground moved.
The stakes, walls, and fragments created during the battle dissolved into crystalline particles and rose around her in a circular current. The blood spears entered the frozen field and lost speed, becoming covered in white layers before breaking apart in the air.
Grace looked at Victor through the rain of fragments.
"The ones in the back are yours."
Victor smiled.
"And the closer ones?"
"Mine."
"Trying to divide the points fairly?"
"No. I want to stop you from destroying the box along with them."
Victor considered that.
"Valid argument."
He let the Black Ice wall collapse.
Then he disappeared.
The first vampire in the rear line noticed only a black flash passing to his left. He tried to turn his face, but Victor was already behind him.
The sword pierced his spine.
Victor pulled the blade sideways, opening the body before advancing to the next target. Black Lightning exploded beneath his feet, closed the distance, and transferred into his arm at the beginning of the second slash.
The blade met a blood barrier.
The shockwave shattered the defense.
The vampire behind it was hurled into the ruins, crashed through a column, and disappeared beneath the rubble.
Another tried to attack him with a spear.
Victor leaned aside, caught the shaft with his free hand, and allowed Black Lightning to travel through the material.
The discharge reached the weapon’s owner.
His muscles locked.
Victor pulled the spear, dragging the vampire toward him, and met him with a slash that separated his head from his body.
On the other side, Grace walked.
She did not run.
She did not need to.
With each step, the ice spread farther.
Three vampires attacked at the same time. One from above, two from the sides. Grace raised her right hand, and a dome of ice formed around her. Their weapons struck the surface and became trapped inside the structure.
Grace closed her left hand.
The dome exploded outward.
Not in disorderly fragments.
Every piece found a target.
Five shards pierced the first attacker’s throat. The second lost both eyes. The third managed to protect himself with his arms, but the ice changed direction in the air, curved around his guard, and pierced both temples.
Grace continued walking without looking at the bodies.
A wounded young man tried to flee along the edge of the clearing.
She touched the ground with the tip of her foot.
A white line traveled through the earth, reached the fleeing man, and froze his leg up to the hip.
He fell.
Before he could crawl away, the ice climbed up his back and closed around his neck.
Grace turned two fingers.
His head twisted backward.
The sound of the neck breaking was almost discreet amid the impacts caused by Victor.
The survivors realized there was no formation left.
No leadership.
No escape route.
They were trapped between two predators who moved in completely different ways, but with equal efficiency.
Victor advanced like a catastrophe.
Grace occupied space like an inevitable sentence.
One of the participants threw his weapon to the ground.
"Wait! We surrender!"
Victor stopped.
Grace did too.
For an instant, the clearing became strangely silent.
The vampire raised his hands.
Two others did the same.
"We only followed orders," he continued. "We did not know what was inside the box. We do not need to continue this."
Victor looked at Grace.
Grace looked at Victor.
"He is on your side," she said.
Victor looked back at the man.
"She is right."
The vampire looked relieved for a fraction of a second.
Victor raised the sword.
The shockwave tore off his head and those of the two behind him.
The bodies fell almost together.
Grace watched the blood spread across the ice.
"Why did you look at me?"
"I wanted to confirm whether you had any objection."
"I did not have time to answer."
"Your silence was very convincing."
The final four survivors tried to escape in different directions.
Grace handled two.
Ice erupted beneath their feet, pierced their legs, and continued upward until it reached their hearts.
Victor went after the others.
A short discharge carried him to the first. He passed the vampire without slowing, and the sword cut through his waist during the movement.
The second was farther away.
Victor raised the blade with both hands.
Black Lightning ran through his arms and entered the Black Ice. Cracks immediately appeared across the weapon’s surface, but Victor held the structure together and delivered a vertical slash.
Compressed wind crossed the clearing.
The fleeing vampire was struck in the back and crushed against the ground. The pressure continued forward, opening a deep trench through the earth and breaking several trees beyond the ruins.
Victor observed the result.
"Maybe I used too much force."
Grace walked past him.
"You think?"
Silence returned.
Now, no red point other than the two of them remained within the clearing.
Victor opened his perception a second time to confirm. The only living beings nearby were himself, Grace, a few distant monsters, and one presence rapidly approaching the edge of his sensory field.
He did not focus on it yet.
Instead, he turned toward the box.
"It is over."
Grace looked at the corpses spread among the ruins.
"Yes."
The two walked toward the artifact.
The black box remained partially covered in red symbols, though most had weakened. Up close, it looked even stranger. The material was neither wood nor ordinary metal. It was cold, dense, and covered in small irregularities resembling dried veins.
Victor touched one of the seals.
The symbol glowed.
He pulled his hand back.
"I do not like it."
"What a profound analysis," Grace commented.
"My blood does not like it either."
Grace became more serious.
She brought her fingers close without touching it directly and created a thin layer of ice over the surface. The cold spread across the inscriptions, reducing the glow of the symbols until nearly all of them went dark.
"Help me open it."
Victor took one side.
Grace took the other.
The box had no visible lock, only a thin line running around the lid. Victor pulled.
Nothing happened.
He applied more force.
The stone beneath his feet cracked.
The box remained closed.
Grace looked at him.
"Perhaps it is not about strength."
"It is almost always about strength."
"Clearly not this time."
Victor allowed Black Ice to enter the opening. The dark structure traveled along the line of the lid, searching for internal locks. Grace followed the process with her own ice from the opposite side.
The two energies met in the center.
Something clicked.
The lid came loose.
Victor slowly lifted it.
Both stepped back slightly, ready for poison, an explosion, chains, a bloodline core, or any other monstrosity that would justify the protection of twenty-five vampires.
Nothing happened.
Inside the box was only a ring.
Old.
Made of dark iron.
Partially rusted.
Victor stared at the object.
So did Grace.
The interior of the box was large enough to hold a head. Even so, the ring sat alone at the center, resting on a small layer of fabric destroyed by time.
Victor tilted his head.
"What the hell is that?"
Grace leaned closer, but did not touch the object.
"A ring."
"I noticed that part."
"Then why did you ask?"
"Because twenty-five people do not usually protect rusty jewelry inside a box full of seals."
Grace examined the metal.
There were no stones.
No visible inscriptions.
No energy seemed to come from it.
Even Victor’s primordial blood did not react.
"Maybe it is a key," she suggested.
"To what?"
"I do not know."
"Excellent. We are making progress."
Victor extended his hand.
Grace grabbed his wrist before he touched the ring.
"No."
He looked at her.
"You just froze several people’s hearts."
"That does not mean I am going to let you put an unknown artifact on your finger."
"I was not going to put it on."
"You definitely were."
Victor opened his mouth to respond.
His perception screamed.
The approaching red point had arrived.
Far too quickly.
A monstrous pressure descended over the clearing.
Grace turned her head.
Too late.
A figure tore through the line of trees and appeared directly in front of her. There was no announcement, threat, or hesitation. Jake Valentine appeared with his body already spinning, his right leg cutting through the air toward Grace’s face.
The kick carried enough force to tear her head off.
Victor moved on instinct.
Black Lightning exploded through his muscles.
He stepped between them and raised his left hand.
Jake’s foot struck his palm.
BOOOOOOM!
The shockwave swept across the ruins.
The ground cracked beneath Victor.
Broken columns were ripped from their positions, and nearby corpses rolled among stones and fragments of ice. Victor’s arm was forced backward, the bones grinding beneath the absurd force.
But he held it.
At the same instant, Black Ice spread across his hand.
The cold covered Jake’s boot, climbed his ankle, and began trapping his leg.
Jake remained motionless at the end of the movement.
Victor did too.
Grace stood behind him, an ice blade already formed in front of Jake’s throat.
For several seconds, the three remained in that position.
Jake looked at the hand holding his foot.
Then at the Black Ice wrapping around his leg.
Then he looked at Victor.
Victor smiled.
"Well, look at that," he said. "He made it."
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